Under The Mistletoe

by Cross, Cassie

  Stella took a deep breath and slid her hand along the slope of his jaw. Instinctively, he rested his head against her palm, closing his eyes. He never felt more at home than when he was with her.

  She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. The movement took Logan by surprise, but he caught on quickly, wrapping his arms around Stella’s waist and pulling her close as they kissed. It was tender and slow, and the way she scraped her fingernails against his scalp practically made him moan. It was all so new, but they were already so, so good at the kissing.

  He loved the soft brush of her fingertips at the nape of his neck, the way she’d grip his hair there, how she melted into him and let him hold her up with his hand at the small of her back.

  He just wanted this…always.

  “I wanted to say thank you,” she said belatedly, brushing her nose against his before kissing him again. “Thank you for bringing my sisters to me, for treating them like they’re special, for wanting to make this trip memorable for us, especially after I told you how important this was to me. It means a lot to me that you listened, and I don’t know that I could ever thank you enough.”

  He reluctantly pulled back, so he could look at her fully. “If something is important to you, it’s important to me. No matter what it is.” He tucked her hair behind her ear, brushing his thumb along her cheekbone as he looked at her, willing her to believe him. “I wanted this trip to be amazing.”

  “Because I worked on the code?” she asked.

  Logan recognized the moment for what it was, a chance to calm those insecurities, to take a step forward putting those feelings of doubt to rest once and for all. He wanted—needed—to tell her how he felt and make her believe it.

  “Because I want you to be happy. Because I want you to have fun. I want the best for you…always. It’s why I recommended you to Omar; because I know you idolize him, and he’s the best at what he does. You deserve to learn from and grow under the best in the business, Stella. I recognize that you’re too good at your job to keep doing it, and if you want to move on and move up, then I want that for you. Hell, I’ll build the ladder for you myself if I have to. I should’ve made you head of the R&D team for the app, no matter what anyone had to say about it. I should’ve…done a lot. I’m trying to make it right now.

  “I did a lot of selfish things that I regret to hold onto you professionally, but it was only because I wanted you close to me in the only way I believed I could have you.”

  Stella looked up at him with shining eyes filled with so much hope and love that it took his breath away. “And now what do you want?”

  “With you?” He shrugged helplessly, feeling more emotionally raw and vulnerable than he ever had. “Everything. I need you to know that, and really believe it, because I love you, Stella. I’m in love with you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Stella felt like she would burst from all the riotous joy blooming in her chest.

  Logan loved her.

  Logan was in love with her.

  He’d said the words, and she believed him. When she’d stopped to think about it, she realized that he’d been telling her for a long time, just not in a way she could hear. It was in a way that was easy for her to dismiss as something much less than it was.

  She felt like the wide, happy smile she had on her face was going to split her in two.

  Logan was smiling back at her, and god…he was so gorgeous. She couldn’t believe after all the longing, after all the thinking it was impossible, that she finally got to have him.

  That this was real.

  She felt giddy as she wrapped her fingers around his tie (she resisted the urge to tease him for wearing a tie when he was working from home, but was definitely going to file that away for later) and pulled his lips to hers. The kiss was sweet at first, both of them forging ahead despite the difficulty presented by them both grinning into their kisses.

  Then Stella had a quick realization that made her pull away with a panicked gasp.

  “What is it?”

  “I meant to say it,” she explained, pausing for a couple of seconds so she could take in the moment. “I love you. I’m in love with you, too.”

  Hearing the words sparked a fire in his eyes that heated their next kiss, making them cling desperately to each other.

  “I love you,” he whispered over and over again, between kisses that she never wanted to stop. He kissed his way down her neck, taking turns softly licking and sucking the skin there.

  Stella sighed, gripping the fabric of Logan’s shirt because she felt like she was losing herself in him, drowning. It was the scariest, most wonderful sensation she’d ever felt, and she needed something to hold onto.

  “Do you have to go back to work?” she asked.

  “Screw work,” he replied, for probably the first time in his adult life. Stella let out a delighted giggle. “I’m taking the day off to be with my girlfriend.”

  Girlfriend. She loved that word.

  Hearing him call her that sent a warm rush through her, and she peeled off her coat, dropping it into a pile on the floor at her feet. She untied Logan’s tie and unbuttoned his shirt with shaking hands, pushing the fabric off his shoulders and delighting in the warmth of his skin beneath her fingers. She’d seen how amazing his chest looked in photos, but they didn’t nearly do him justice. He was gorgeous. Tanned. Broad. Muscular.

  She couldn’t believe he was hers to touch, to taste, to kiss. She had to keep herself from laughing with glee at the thought of finally getting to do to him all the dirty little things she’d imagined.

  Not ever known for his patience, Logan gripped the hem of Stella’s sweater and pulled it up over her head, tossing it somewhere near where her coat had landed. He stood back and admired her in her bra, reaching out and tracing the edges of the lacy cups. She’d picked this one specifically, hoping this would happen when she arrived here, and hoping that he would like the way it looked on her.

  Judging by his reaction, she’d chosen well.

  Logan enveloped her as he brushed his lips against her neck, then reached around behind her to unclasp her bra. When it fell from her shoulders, he gently caressed her breasts, then kissed his way across them, laving his tongue across her nipples. She let out a moan that, when coupled with the way she gripped his hair, tore this deep, sexy growl from his chest as he lifted her up and carried her into his bedroom.

  He gently draped her on his soft comforter and made quick work of her pants and undies, hooking his fingers around her waistband and dragging them both down.

  Logan caressed her calves as he stared down at her, taking in her naked body. She’d always been a little shy in moments like this, but Logan made her feel confident, sexy, and wanted. There wasn’t a single part of her that wanted to shy away from him.

  “You’re so beautiful. I always imagined…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “I never thought I could have this.”

  “Take it,” she replied impulsively. “Whatever you need. I’m yours.”

  Logan rested his knee on the bed beside Stella’s hip, leaning down and clasping his fingers with hers as he held their hands above her head. He gave her a soft, gentle kiss before he made his way downward and kissed the valley between her breasts, her middle, all the way down to her hip. He knelt on the floor and opened her legs, caressing the inside of her thighs.

  He brushed his scratchy stubble along her sensitive flesh, making goosebumps blossom across her body.

  “Sometimes I’d look at you during a meeting,” he admitted, gently placing her calves to rest over his shoulders. “And I’d wonder how your skin would feel against mine…what you would taste like.”

  Stella’s pulse kicked up in anticipation. He was going to be the end of her, she knew it. She welcomed it.

  He pressed kiss after kiss along her inner thigh, teasing, then a gentle suck right above her pubic bone as his hands learned the curves of her body.

  She drew in a quick breath as he licked rig
ht where she wanted him, pleasure shooting throughout her body.

  He paused, driving her crazy. “You like to brush your fingers across your collarbone when you’re nervous. Sometimes you’d do it at the office, and I’d stare, wondering how soft that skin was, what it would feel like if I kissed you there.”

  “Come find out,” Stella replied, her voice wrecked. Logan peered up between her thighs, raising one brow over his lust-filled eyes. “When you’ve finished what you’re doing,” she quickly added, definitely not wanting him to stop.

  He pressed his mouth back against her and laughed, the hum of it driving her higher and higher. Thanks to the magical combination of his tongue and his fingers, Stella was done for, back arching off the bed, heels digging into his back, his name falling from her lips as she came.

  Logan draped his body over hers in a warm, safe cocoon as she came down, trying to match the rhythm of his breathing to calm her racing heart. She wished there was some way she could feel his body wrapped around hers all the time. He made her feel wanted and safe, and she wanted to carry that feeling around with her everywhere she went.

  Stella was blissed out on her orgasm as Logan held his body over hers, his hands pressing into the mattress for stability. She reached over and slid her fingers along the muscled ridges of Logan’s forearm, turning her head and sitting up just enough to place a kiss there.

  “You roll your sleeves up when you’re concentrating. Every damn day at some point, you’d walk out to my desk with your shirt up to your elbows and it turned me on every time. The most unrelenting, exquisite torture,” she teased.

  Logan let out a huff of a laugh. “Yeah?”

  Stella sat up more, pressing a kiss against his shoulder as she reached down and undid his belt and pants, then she hiked her legs up just enough to push his pants and boxers down with her toes.

  “Oh yeah. I’ve wanted you for so long,” she admitted with a whisper.

  “You have me,” he replied, lifting her legs up around his hips as he ditched his pants and knelt on the bed.

  He kissed her as he slid home, and she let out a soft sigh, arching against him because she needed more. They moved in perfect rhythm, their bodies totally in sync as they touched and caressed and made each other feel so, so good.

  Logan knew exactly where to touch her, how firm and fast his touch should be, probably the result of working together so seamlessly for so many years and knowing each other so well.

  When the waves of pleasure crested and Stella was just about to fall over the edge, she wrapped her arms around Logan, giving her something to cling to. When his hips lost their rhythm as he moved in and out of her, chasing his orgasm, he curled up tight against her, burying his face in her neck. She slid his fingers through his hair, soothing him as they held each other and tried catching their breath.

  Logan nuzzled against her cheek, then leaned in and kissed her tenderly.

  “I think I like this version of driving each other crazy, rather than the old way we used to do it,” Stella said.

  Logan laughed as he rolled them both over until he was on his back, and she was cuddled into his side, her head resting on his chest. He pushed a sweaty strand of hair off her forehead.

  “This is much more satisfying than sending you out to Starbucks with a mile-long order.”

  She laughed. “It sure is. I think we should do it again.” Now that she’d had a taste of him, it was never going to be enough.

  Logan smiled at her, then planted a loving kiss on the top of her head. “Soon,” he sighed, like he was utterly depressed by the thought of the refractory period.

  Stella was undeterred. “We can make out a little in the meantime.”

  Logan wasted no time in pulling her fully on top of him, like a human blanket, every inch of their skin touching. “Sounds good to me,” he said, moving in for a kiss.

  * * *

  They made love twice more before the mid-winter sunset cast the apartment in darkness. Stella was going to have to leave soon in order to make her flight, and for the first time since she and her sisters had planned their trip, she was reluctant to go.

  “How am I going to make it two weeks without you?”

  Stella sighed. She understood the feeling. She wanted more of this; the very last thing she wanted to do was hop on a plane and fly thousands of miles away from it. She was thisclose to asking him to come along with them, even though she knew she couldn’t. Stella really needed—and wanted—this time alone with her sisters.

  “Just think of how happy you’ll be to see me when I get back.”

  “So happy.” Logan dragged his fingertips slowly up and down Stella’s upper arm. “I’ll pick you up from the airport, and we won’t leave the bed for at least 36 hours, if not more.”

  “I’ve always loved the way your mind works.”

  “When you come back, I’d like you to help me hire an all new coding staff. I need your input; it can be one of your final duties as my beautiful and amazing assistant. I should’ve listened to you in the first place when you told me your concerns about what I was doing.”

  Stella propped herself up on her elbow, and leaned over, kissing Logan sweetly. “This bodes well for our relationship.”

  Logan laughed.

  “Also, you’re acting like I’ve already gotten another job. Don’t go talking about my final duties as your assistant until I’ve gotten an offer.”

  “Beautiful and amazing assistant,” he corrected. “Those are important parts. And you’re going to get the job.”

  Stella arched her brow. “Did you pay Omar off or something?”

  “What? No.” Logan seemed offended that she was even willing to tease him about something like that. “You’re ridiculously talented, and you have the drive and smarts to learn whatever you need to. Omar’s good at recognizing talent; that’s part of what’s gotten him to where he is today. He’ll hire you.”

  “Thank you. Being with you is a real gift to my self-esteem,” she said teasingly.

  That perked Logan up. “Speaking of gifts, didn’t you arrive here with one?”

  Stella sat up with a gasp. “Yes! I brought something for you. I totally forgot about it.” When she noticed the smug look on Logan’s face, she swatted at him. “Don’t go getting a big head over it.”

  She stood up and reached for the discarded comforter on the bed, but Logan grabbed it first.

  “Don’t cover up,” he said, lounging on the bed. He folded his arms back behind his head, his long, lean, wonderfully naked body on display for her. The lustful look on his face as he admired her made it really difficult to go out into his living room and fetch his present, but she somehow managed it. She also grabbed her purse before she went back to him.

  Logan sat up when she placed the gift beside him. His face lit up, and he ripped into the wrapping paper with an enthusiasm that she’d only ever seen in a child. She couldn’t help but laugh at his comically large eyes when he realized what she’d brought, reveling in the understanding that dawned on him when he realized why she’d picked that particular thing.

  He threw his head back and laughed.

  The sound of it was gorgeous.

  “Operation,” he said with a smile as he ran his fingertip along the edge of the box.

  “The bed’s not really the best place to play,” she told him.

  With the dirtiest, most suggestive look she’d ever seen on him, he said, “Not board game playing, at least.”

  Stella’s cheeks blushed crimson as she crawled back onto the bed, dropping her purse on Logan’s nightstand. “We can play Operation when I get back.”

  Logan hooked his hand around her waist, pulling her to straddle his lap. “I plan on doing a lot of things when you get back. Like this…” A kiss on her neck. “And this.” A kiss on her shoulder. “And this, too.” A long, lingering kiss on the side of her breast.

  Stella rocked her hips, making him hiss. If they were quick, they probably had time for another—

&nbs
p; Her thoughts were interrupted by the alarm on her phone, letting her know it was time to get back home to her sisters so they could get ready for their redeye flight. She reached over and turned it off.

  “Oh!” she remembered, wanting to do this one last thing because she wouldn’t see him until after New Year’s. “I brought something else.”

  “Yeah?” Logan asked, intrigued.

  Stella reached into her bag, and fished out a sprig of mistletoe. She handed it to Logan, who held it high above their heads. “I wanted to do it right this time.”

  That was exactly what they did.

  Preview: Kiss Me At Midnight

  SUMMARY:

  It’s New Year’s Eve, and Zoey Ryan is in a holiday funk. Her career has taken a downturn, she doesn’t have much of a love life, and she’s being kept awake all night by a neighbor who’s both enthusiastic and incredibly loud in bed.

  Sleep-deprived Zoey isn’t optimistic that her situation will improve anytime soon, despite her best friend’s well-intentioned meddling. Then she meets Finn McCall, a handsome stranger who’s at a crossroads, too.

  When an errand takes an unexpected turn—leaving Zoey and Finn with no one to talk to but each other—Zoey wonders if Finn might be able to help her bring in the new year with a bang.

  During rush hour at the cafe on the corner of my block in TriBeCa, my friend Caroline watches as I gingerly sip from a cup of dark roast that is approximately the size of my head.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Zoey,” she says as she stirs about a pint of cream into her coffee. “I love you, but you look terrible.”

  “Is there a right way to take that?” I ask, trying not to be offended. I was feeling pretty good about myself when I left my apartment this morning. I’m having a great hair day, and the jeans I shoved in the back of my closet when I could only yank them halfway up my thighs finally fit again.